JACKSON, MI – She stole about $8,000 worth of heroin from him and Tyree Cleary said he reacted out of anger and frustration.

“I just wasn’t emotionally there when I should have just stopped and thought about what I was doing,” Cleary said Wednesday, Dec. 4.

He took the woman at gunpoint late April 17 or early April 18, held her for about two days and allegedly beat her with a belt, ordered her to take off her clothes, duct taped her and raped her, according to information presented in court.

“You keep talking about how you are going to kill her. You are taking the clip out of the gun so she can understand it is loaded with bullets. I am surprised you didn’t kill her,” Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain said.

He sentenced Cleary, an alleged heroin dealer, to 16 years to 30 years in prison. Cleary, 38, will serve a mandatory two years for using a firearm to commit a felony and then 14 to 30 years for first-degree home invasion.

The judge also gave him lesser prison terms for unlawful imprisonment and carrying a concealed weapon, but those sentences will run concurrent to the home invasion sentence.

His co-defendant, who assisted only in forcing the woman from a home on Trail Street, is going to prison for nine to 20 years. Otis Jackson, 25, admitted to first-degree home invasion and the firearm crime.

The woman testified at a preliminary examination in May, when she was in jail for absconding on probation, but she has since been uncooperative with authorities, Assistant Prosecutor Jake Dickerson said. She was avoiding subpoenas and lawyers came to a resolution shortly before or when a trial was to begin.

“This is a situation where the victim… was so terrified, she didn’t want to go to court anymore,” Dickerson told the judge.

Cleary’s lawyer, Anthony Raduazo, said it his and his client’s opinion the woman, then 24, embellished much.

There was a plea agreement and some of the allegations remain allegations, he said. “(The prosecution) didn’t prove their case. They couldn’t prove their case.”

The woman is a heroin addict, he said. “It’s not like you are getting a girl scout off the street.” Jackson’s lawyer, Phillip Berkemeier, called her a prostitute.

Cleary and some in the crowd were obviously upset about the sentencing. “She lying and they believe everything she said,” a Cleary supporter muttered as she angrily left the courtroom.

Dickerson conceded the victim is not an ideal citizen. She admitted to stealing Cleary’s drugs.

The photographs of the bruises all over her body, however, backed her story and her statements were consistent, he said. Additionally, another co-defendant, Miranda Germain, corroborated most of what the woman reported, Dickerson said.

Germain, 30, took part in keeping the woman at her and Eric Martin’s home on Warwick Court.

She pleaded guilty to attempted unlawful imprisonment and is to be sentenced on Dec. 18.

The prosecutor’s office is dropping a charge against Martin, 25. Dickerson said the victim said she thought he would have let her go if not for the others. He appeared scared, Dickerson said.

Cleary was believed to have been staying with Martin and Germain. He was said to have been selling heroin. He has a pending heroin case in Genesee County and a previous felony heroin conviction, Dickerson said. Raduazo said Cleary is a heroin user.

Before McBain sentenced him, Cleary said he is “not perfect.” He apologized and took full responsibility. “I am very disappointed in myself.”

Jackson, who also has a previous felony conviction, too apologized. He said he entered the Trail Street house, not knowing what was going to occur.

He has two daughters and a stepson, he said, and he is not a criminal or a “bad guy.”

Dickerson agreed he was a lesser participant, but he still took part in a serious incident. The assistant prosecutor was skeptical of Jackson’s claims he was unaware. “I think Mr. Jackson clearly knew what was going on when he went to the house.”

There is nothing to suggest Jackson was part of the “horror story” that followed the capture, McBain said. “I do think you had a far more minimal role.”